DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0204
190
SECTION VII.
OF THE COSTUME IN PAINTING, AND THE PAINTER'S BALANCE,
Costume is an Italian term signifying customs, manners, practices, adopted among artists,
to express the conformity of the representation of any fact to the fact itself, as handed down to
us, or as it may be, on good reason and authority, supposed to have really"happened. This con-
formity must be very comprehensive, including whatever relates to the manners of the times,
to the characters or the persons concerned, to their dress and arms, to the customs of the place,
the buildings and style of architecture, to the animals, to the taste of the people, their wealth,
occupations, amusements, &c.; in fine, to whatever circumstances are peculiar to and charac-
teristic of the fact to be represented. This enumeration of particulars shews that the study of
the costume is no slight undertaking. The artist must carefully consult the historic relations and
original movements of the period on which he is employed; observing at the same time not to
shock the eye of the spectator, by displaying such circumstances as would be in too violent op-
position to the corresponding incidents and practices of his own day. He must speak, as it were,
nothing but the truth, at the same time that he is not expected to unfold the whole truth.
Again, it often happens that a piece composed of picturesque figures derives considerable advan-
tage from certain liberties used by the painter, calculated both to facilitate his own labour, and
to gratify the spectator : for the professed judges of the performance are not habitually occupied
with all the details of ancient or even modern history; or profoundly versed in all the circum-
stances by which a considerable departure from the correctness of costume is rendered conspi-
cuous : nor are they so ignorant as not to perceive, or so careless as not to pay regard to those
circumstances, without a due attention to which this branch of the art would become altogether
arbitrary. Between these extremes the painter must guide his course, neither on the one hand
sternly rejecting appropriate and admissible beauties, nor on the other sacrificing all regard to
probability.
When no authentic historical details are to be procured, the artist is more at liberty to give
scope to his invention : but he must be cautious how he introduces such objects as are familiar
to the spectator: because all illusion would then be destroyed, and the piece would have more
the air of a modern theatrical representation of the subject than of a historical narration.
It has been much debated whether the costume ought to be strictly adhered to in portrait
painting. One party have alledged that however much a particular mode (of dress, for example)
may be authorised by the existing fashion of the times, yet that it never fails, in the course of a
few years, to become ridiculous, even in the eyes of those who at the time most admired it;
and will, in all probability, appear still more extravagant and senseless to posterity. Their
antagonists on the other hand have stated that this correct fidelity, in point of dress, con-
tributes powerfully to produce the genuine resemblance in the portrait: that it thus becomes a
historical monument for the information of future times; that there is no fixed or universal and
permanent costume, excepting in certain dresses of office and ceremony; and that those who
are in situations requiring such dresses ought naturally to be so represented.
With
SECTION VII.
OF THE COSTUME IN PAINTING, AND THE PAINTER'S BALANCE,
Costume is an Italian term signifying customs, manners, practices, adopted among artists,
to express the conformity of the representation of any fact to the fact itself, as handed down to
us, or as it may be, on good reason and authority, supposed to have really"happened. This con-
formity must be very comprehensive, including whatever relates to the manners of the times,
to the characters or the persons concerned, to their dress and arms, to the customs of the place,
the buildings and style of architecture, to the animals, to the taste of the people, their wealth,
occupations, amusements, &c.; in fine, to whatever circumstances are peculiar to and charac-
teristic of the fact to be represented. This enumeration of particulars shews that the study of
the costume is no slight undertaking. The artist must carefully consult the historic relations and
original movements of the period on which he is employed; observing at the same time not to
shock the eye of the spectator, by displaying such circumstances as would be in too violent op-
position to the corresponding incidents and practices of his own day. He must speak, as it were,
nothing but the truth, at the same time that he is not expected to unfold the whole truth.
Again, it often happens that a piece composed of picturesque figures derives considerable advan-
tage from certain liberties used by the painter, calculated both to facilitate his own labour, and
to gratify the spectator : for the professed judges of the performance are not habitually occupied
with all the details of ancient or even modern history; or profoundly versed in all the circum-
stances by which a considerable departure from the correctness of costume is rendered conspi-
cuous : nor are they so ignorant as not to perceive, or so careless as not to pay regard to those
circumstances, without a due attention to which this branch of the art would become altogether
arbitrary. Between these extremes the painter must guide his course, neither on the one hand
sternly rejecting appropriate and admissible beauties, nor on the other sacrificing all regard to
probability.
When no authentic historical details are to be procured, the artist is more at liberty to give
scope to his invention : but he must be cautious how he introduces such objects as are familiar
to the spectator: because all illusion would then be destroyed, and the piece would have more
the air of a modern theatrical representation of the subject than of a historical narration.
It has been much debated whether the costume ought to be strictly adhered to in portrait
painting. One party have alledged that however much a particular mode (of dress, for example)
may be authorised by the existing fashion of the times, yet that it never fails, in the course of a
few years, to become ridiculous, even in the eyes of those who at the time most admired it;
and will, in all probability, appear still more extravagant and senseless to posterity. Their
antagonists on the other hand have stated that this correct fidelity, in point of dress, con-
tributes powerfully to produce the genuine resemblance in the portrait: that it thus becomes a
historical monument for the information of future times; that there is no fixed or universal and
permanent costume, excepting in certain dresses of office and ceremony; and that those who
are in situations requiring such dresses ought naturally to be so represented.
With